Venetian type blinds, pleated shades, roman shades and roll-up blinds have lift cords for raising and lowering the window covering material. The lift cords extend from a bottomrail through or past the window covering material and into the headrail. The cords can be collected on a cord collector within the headrail or, more typically, exit one end of the headrail. In most of these blinds a cord lock is provided at one end of the headrail and the lift cords pass through that cord lock as they exit the headrail. The cord lock allows the user to maintain the blind in any desired position from fully raised to fully lowered.
It is common in the art to provide the tilt cords at one end of the headrail and the lift cords at the opposite end of the headrail as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,409,943 to Kwon. The art has also positioned the tilt cords and lift cords at the same end of the headrail as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,238 to Tachikawa et al. Some headrails have been made with knockouts at both ends of the blind so that the same headrail can be used for blinds having controls on the right and blinds having controls on the left. When the blind is fabricated one of the knockouts is removed to provide an opening for the lift cords and tilt cords. It is also known to put a cord lock in an end cap that fits onto one end of the headrail such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,550. Such inserts are designed to fit into either the left end or right end of the headrail and are not reversible.
Nearly all blinds and pleated shades are fabricated in a factory and taken in finished form to the house or building where they will be hung by an installer. The installer mounts the brackets that hold the blind at each window location and may adjust the length of the blind at the time of installation. The salesman should ask the buyer if he or she has a preference as to whether the lift cords and tilt cords should be on the right side or the left side of the blind. If a there is a preference the factory ought to be notified so that the blind is fabricated according to the customer's preference. If the installer delivers a conventional blind with the controls on the wrong side, he cannot change the location of the blind controls in the field and must return that blind to the factory. Although some installers have the skills and the tools to fabricate blinds in their shop they seldom reconfigure blinds in their shop to change the position of the controls because that is a time consuming process. It is easier and less costly for the installer to simply return the blind to the factory. Each return means that the installer must make a second trip to the home or business thereby increasing the cost of the sale to both the manufacturer and the installer. Furthermore, if an installer is required to return to a home to replace a blind, very often the customer will ask the installer to make other changes or adjustments. Then the installer must spend even more time on that sale. Consequently, there is a need for a headrail for venetian blinds and pleated shades in which the installer can change the position of the cord lock from one end of the headrail to the opposite end of the headrail in the field where the window covering is being installed.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,894 Judkins discloses a headrail having reversible modular controls allowing the cord lock to be positioned at either end of the headrail. The headrail has two sidewalls that are spaced apart, generally parallel and attached to the base. Each sidewall has a slot sized to receive a plug or a fitting through which the lift cords and tilt cords or a hook for a tilt wand pass. The slots are opposite one another and of a same size. One changes the controls from one end of the headrail to the opposite end of the headrail by moving the lift cords and tilt cord or hook from one slot to the other slot. This requires that slots be cut in the sidewalls and a plug be provided for one of the slots.
Consequently, there is a need for a headrail in which the installer can change the position of the cord lock from one end of the headrail to an opposite end at the time the headrail is installed. Preferably the headrail can be made from existing extrusions that are currently being used for headrails.